Investment Risk and Uncertainty: Advanced Risk Awareness Techniques for the Intelligent Investor

Foreword

For many years, I have written and edited finance books as well as read the works of many others covering a wide range of topics. What is immediately recognizable about this book, however, is that it touches on many difficult and deep topics all under the same roof. Investing Risk and Uncertainty is able to do so by gathering the expertise of several highly qualified contributors and seamlessly organizing it all in one place for the reader.

Although the book does have some financial mathematics throughout, that is not the focus—the core message is about multi-asset class risk measurement, on-going monitoring, and mitigation. It is a formal practitioner’s guide to the topic of risk, from first principle’s definitions through to the latest mathematical construct of sophisticated risk measures calculations. To deliver that topic, the book starts with simple definitions of risk and in particular, introduces risk, its management, and its interpretation in historical context. This is an essential element often left out of books on the subject, leading a less informed reader up the learning curve much quicker than they might arrive naturally.

Since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, there has been much discussion in the media about risk management failures. Likewise this on-going crisis has seen the promotion of risk managers to positions offering more authority over portfolio assets than they’ve ever had before. This has led to greater attention paid to the risks of portfolios ...